But this loss did not stop Brown and the next version of the J.B.’s from cutting their best studio album, and one of Brown’s last successes before his work took a nosedive in the late 70’s. Though his second band, The J.B.’s, retained their name, they lost potency when brothers Bootsy and Catfish Collins (among others) defected to George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic collective. The importance of There’s A Riot Goin’ On as a funk album, artist profile, and cultural commentary cannot be understated and positions it as one of the most powerful albums of the 20th century.īy the end of 1970, James Brown had burned through two of the greatest backing bands to ever do it. “Luv N’ Haight” evangelizes Sly’s drug-induced isolation with the repeated line “Feel so good inside myself Don't want to move.” A downtempo rerecording of the band’s previous hit “Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)” is distilled and funkified on the track “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa,” further evincing his cynicism toward the band and the world around him. Tension between bandmates, demanding record executives and rampant drug use, coupled with frequent overdubbing in the album’s mix, gave way to a hazy sound that embodied the social climate of the early ‘70s. Sly & The Family Stone: There’s a Riot Goin’ OnĪ definitive protest album and a departure from the psychedelic soul that fueled the band’s rise, There’s A Riot Goin’ On is as much about the struggles Black Americans still faced after the Civil Rights Movement as it is about Sly’s own demons. These are 10 of the best funk albums to own on vinyl.
Some will make you dance, some will make you think, but they will all put a smile on your face at least once. The albums below each showcase a different flavor of funk. To this day, the groove that funk started continues to drive hits for the likes of Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars, as well as an entire Childish Gambino album. Dre to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bass lines. And by the ’90s, it could be heard everywhere from the sample-heavy hip-hop of Dr. Rick James and Prince shocked it back to life in the ’80s with synths and swag. While it’s popularity waned in the mid-to-late ’70s, funk never truly died. Sometimes comical, biting, and other-worldly at the same time, funk is music at its most guttural and exciting potential. By varying tempo, meter, and instrumentation, they morphed stale song structures into cyclic grooves powered by bass, rhythm guitar, drums, horns and later, synth. Starting in the mid-1960s, these progenitors of funk took soul, jazz, and R&B and stripped them to their essential components. And for Sly Stone it was a reflection of the times and his soul: joyful and optimistic through the ‘60s, cynical and melancholic as the decade turned. For George Clinton, it was a fresh start after losing a legal battle and finding LSD.
For James Brown, funk was a divorce from the soul sound-and the band-that made him. Not in the accidental sense of the word, but in the sense that art shapes and conforms to the context of the moment.
Like all genres, funk was a byproduct of circumstance.
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